


Tell Me About the Years and Let Me Buy an Hour

by thereweregiants



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Mild recreational drug use, Miscommunication, Modern AU, Mutual Idiocy, Prostitution, except it's not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 20:54:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18764044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereweregiants/pseuds/thereweregiants
Summary: If someone mistakes you for an escort, the smart thing to do is to correct them.There's the smart thing to do, and then there's Jesse McCree.





	Tell Me About the Years and Let Me Buy an Hour

**Author's Note:**

> ehhh I have no excuse. sometimes you just want Dumb Soft Things
> 
>  
> 
> title from Broken Bells' [Holding on for Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184Gx-5DEMs)  
> soundtrack to writing was Einaudi's Le Onde

“...And I am sorry, but I just do not think that we will work out.” Amélie smiled slightly, pressed dry lips to Jesse’s cheek, and was gone in a swirl of black silk and French perfume. Jesse just downed the last of his drink and waved to the bartender for another.

Jesse appreciated that Genji was trying to help him get over his ex, but setting him up on these blind dates really wasn’t working. He’d dressed Jesse up in clothes that cost more than his rent, given him directions to a horrifically expensive hotel, and told him to wait at the bar.  Amélie was beautiful, intelligent, and so far out of Jesse’s league they weren’t even playing the same sport. He wasn’t quite sure what Genji was thinking, there. Jesse worked for an animal rescue, Amélie was a ballet dancer, and both of their social lives went along with their careers. They had literally nothing to talk about other than their very different associations with Genji.

It had still gone better than the date with that scientist, two weeks back. Jesse had been afraid to try his drink for fear that he’d pass out and wake up with his kidneys missing. When he asked Genji how he knew her he’d been cagey enough that Jesse had walked out and left him with the dinner bill.

It’s all out of love and concern, Jesse knows that. He’s been down since his girlfriend had left him, saying that their romance was dead and she wasn’t willing to be with a man who had no ambition other than petting puppies all day. That was tacitly untrue: the rescue wouldn’t function without everything Jesse did, and after getting his certification his dog training courses were getting really popular. He’s thinking about maybe branching out to work with therapy or service dogs, he’ll just have to see if Ana would let him.

“This seat taken?” Jesse looks over just enough to see blonde hair, blue eyes, and a smile. The bar is empty, but whatever. He waves a hand to indicate his lack of caring and goes back to his drink. Ana managed the budgets but Jesse generally knew what they were. It’s not like they were rolling in money, but after the charity ball, maybe…

The man next to him tries to strike up a conversation, but Jesse’s short with him. He finally wanders off, bored. Jesse orders another bourbon, along with some kind of weird truffled fries so he he isn’t downing all this on an empty stomach. He wouldn’t have been able to afford any of it if Genji hadn’t shoved cash into his hand and said to show his date a nice time. Genji makes more money with his two clubs than he knows what to do with - not to mention the whole date business was his idea - so Jesse had no problems taking the bills.

Jesse munches on a fry. How they could justify charging fifteen bucks for fried potatoes with a bit of overpriced oil on them was beyond him. He spends a moment wanting ketchup, then realizes that if he asks for it they might kick him out. Glancing around, he wonders if anyone would notice if he grabbed the vinegar from behind the bar to dump on the fries. 

He’s surprised to see someone next to him, he hadn’t noticed the guy sit down. The man gives him a crooked smile and asks what he’s drinking. Jesse answers, turning away slightly to finish the rest of his food. Were people in fancy bars always so...friendly? He vastly preferred his local, where the bartender knew exactly what Jesse wanted and he could drink silently in peace. Here he’s being accosted by people every five minutes, and the tight shirt that Genji had put him in isn't helping matters by sticking to his back. 

Tugging his jacket off, he lays it on the stool beside him. At least that might keep people from sitting on his one side, or so he thinks up until some woman with way too much perfume comes up from behind and tries to talk to him, followed by a man wearing roughly a gallon of hair gel and a slimy smile. What the hell is with all these people? He isn’t interested in the stock market or how the marina raised their prices or any of the other dozen idiotic topics they’ve been bringing up.

Jesse cashes out, only wincing a little at the receipt. He turns to get his jacket, but someone next to him has already picked it up. Jesse frowns at yet another intrusion on his night, right up until he looks at the guy in the face. Holy shit. He’s somehow both the most attractive and most intimidating person Jesse’s ever set eyes on. Bone structure that looks like it was carved out of marble, worryingly scarred skin, and intense eyes that dry up the objections before they make their way out of Jesse’s throat. 

“I see you’re fairly selective,” the man says in a low rumble that Jesse automatically leans forward slightly to hear. “But I promise I can make it worth your while.” Jesse isn’t sure what to say, isn’t sure what’s happening, but lets the guy help him into his jacket. His hands are firm and warm, and one trails down Jesse’s back for a long, long moment.

He says something about a rate, and Jesse shakes his head in confusion, brows creased in a frown. The only rates he has is for his dog training classes, and somehow he feels like this guy isn’t talking about those. The man’s mouth turns up a bit at the corner, and Jesse loses his train of thought. “Not a problem,” the man says. “Whatever it is, I’ll double it.”  Jesse blinks. The guy tilts his head up. “Penthouse okay?”

Jesse nods dumbly. There’s a voice of reason in him that says  _ Don’t get picked up by strangers in bars, no matter how attractive they are _ , but it’s drowned out by the warm hand at the base of his spine that guides him through the crowds to the elevator. Once they’re in open space, Jesse feels like he can breathe a bit more. Genji wanted to get him out of the house? Well, he’s goddamned out of the house. Maybe it didn’t work out with  Amélie, but this guy might even be hotter than she is.

He hasn’t been with a man in a decade, and most of his memories of those experiences have been fuzzed out by time and the haze of idiot decisions and alcohol in his early twenties. There’s a warmth low in his gut when the guy’s hand trails away from his back to hit the elevator button and then goes right back where it was that tells Jesse that his time away from dicks really isn’t going to matter. 

The elevator slows and stops, but the doors don’t open until the man sticks a black card in a discreet slit next to the buttons. The doors open to reveal a short hallway with thick carpeting and a door that Jesse is gently pushed towards. The man opens the door with his keycard, revealing the most expensive looking hotel suite Jesse’s ever seen. He thought places like this existed on tv shows and shit like that, not downtown at a hotel he’s passed a dozen times.

The man walks past him, going to a small marble-topped bar that looks to have as good a selection as the bar down in the restaurant. “Drink?”

Jesse clears his throat, actually speaks to the guy for the first time. “Think I drank enough downstairs. Take some water, though.” The man pauses, eyebrows raising just the slightest bit at hearing Jesse’s voice. A spark of annoyance runs through Jesse - maybe his clothes don’t match his accent, but he won’t apologize for where he came from. This guy can deal with it.

He walks over, sips from the glass of water handed to him as the man pours from an unmarked bottle that smells like scotch. They stand there drinking for a moment, and the man runs frank eyes up and down Jesse’s body. He wants to move, to squirm under the surprisingly strong gaze. For someone that picks up a one night stand in a bar, this guy is awfully intense.

The man sets his drink down without warning, plucks Jesse’s from his hand and does the same. He takes his jacket off, revealing a crisp white shirt that had to be tailored to hell and back to fit around those broad shoulders and trim waist so well. Jesse’s distracted enough by looking at him that he barely notices the guy sliding Jesse’s own jacket down his shoulders and off his arms. The man’s fingers are plucking nimbly at the buttons on Jesse’s shirt before Jesse shakes himself into action and wraps a hand around the man’s fingers to still them.

“Wait,” he says. An eyebrow lifts as shadowed brown eyes meet his own from all of a foot away. “What’s your name?” The eyebrow raises a bit higher before lowering.

“You can call me Gabriel,” he says, as fingers undo his shirt buttons at speed. Gabriel’s hands slide around Jesse’s bare waist and drag up his sides, running over the muscle that Jesse’s built up from years of working with animals that are stronger than he is. His ex hadn’t liked it, said it made him too bulky, but Gabriel seems to enjoy it if the way he’s touching Jesse’s chest and feeling around to his back is any indication. 

Jesse works at undoing Gabriel’s shirt, his work-roughened fingers fumbling slightly at the small buttons. A body that is almost terrifyingly built is revealed, broadly defined muscles covered by lightly furred skin, the hair interrupted every once in awhile by various pale scars. Jesse can’t stop curious fingers from tracing over a long one that wraps around Gabriel’s ribs, and from this close he notices Gabriel’s breath pause as he touches the raised tissue.

He glances up. “Okay?” Gabriel just pulls Jesse’s hand away and tugs him inexorably over towards the bedroom. They lose their shoes on the way, Jesse mentally apologizing to Genji as he uses the edge of the doorframe to help get his expensive borrowed loafers off. They pause there - Gabriel’s hands are at his waist and moving towards the fly of his pants when Jesse brings a hand up to his face. Gabriel’s fingers slow then stop as Jesse combs his fingers lightly through his goatee, accidentally brushing his thumb over a full lower lip. 

It’s been so long since Jesse’s done the one night stand thing, been even longer since he’s slept with a man. He doesn’t know the protocols, especially not with someone who seems so used to this kind of casual sex. Jesse is still Jesse, though, and he can’t help what he likes. He raises his eyes from Gabriel’s mouth, meets his steady look. “Can I kiss you?” An almost childish question, but Gabriel strikes him as the type of person of whom you ask permission.

That eyebrow of Gabriel’s raises again. He seems to be perpetually slightly amused at Jesse, and he’s not sure why. It doesn’t really matter, though, because Gabriel seems to mentally shrug and bends his head down to Jesse’s. His lips are firm, his beard brushing against Jesse’s own. It’s slow, almost chaste, until suddenly it’s not. 

Gabriel’s hands are on Jesse’s face, pushing him back hard until he hits the wall. The grip on his face keeps his head from hitting the wall, but Jesse pulls his mouth away as his chest compresses and he exhales hard. Gabriel takes the opportunity to attack Jesse’s neck, one hand sliding up to pull his hair back as the other tries to make its way down the back of his pants. Jesse’s holding on for life, his fingers twined tightly into Gabriel’s dark curls, trying to breathe through the wet mouth that is seemingly everywhere at once.

At a particularly hard nip, Jesse tugs on Gabriel’s hair. “No visible marks,” he says through panting breaths - he’d never hear the end of it from Ana. Gabriel frowns but nods, mouthing his way up Jesse’s jawline until he’s at his lips again. Jesse wonders dazedly about Gabriel - he seems comfortable picking up men in bars and with the face and body he has it’s likely as easy as Jesse was for him tonight, but he kisses like no one’s bothered to do so in years. That’s a goddamn shame if true, Gabriel’s mouth is the best thing Jesse’s tasted in ages. 

Jesse melts into the kisses, can feel his lips start to swell up from the pressure. He doesn’t notice the hand tugging at his leg until he mindlessly wraps it around Gabriel’s waist, not until Gabriel’s starts pulling at his other leg. Gabriel puts one of those thick arms under Jesse’s ass and hauls upwards, and with a startled sound Jesse is off the ground and wrapped around Gabriel like an octopus. Gabriel seems to almost not pay attention, tongue teasing at Jesse’s own as he walks them over to the bed. 

They stand by the bed just making out for a minute, until Gabriel leans forward to set him down, half-kneeling on the bed. He sits back, looking over Jesse with his kiss-reddened lips, the bulge in his pants obvious.

“How do you want me?” Jesse asks.

“Naked.”

Jesse scrambles to get his pants off, sure at any minute that Gabriel’s going to come to his senses and kick him out, find someone more suited to his...everything. Jesse watches with lidded eyes as Gabriel efficiently strips out of the remainder of his clothing, revealing thighs like tree trunks, more of those almost-disturbing scars, and a thick cock that Jesse wants in him as soon as possible. He doesn’t quite get it, Jesse thinks as he tosses his own underwear somewhere off to the side. The man is built like a god, obviously loaded, and a good two decades older than Jesse. Jesse knows that he’s decently good looking and charming, but he didn’t get the chance to really show any of that. What the hell does he want with him?

Gabriel pulls open the nightstand drawer, takes out a bottle of lube - expensive, silicone stuff - and a box of condoms of a brand Jesse’s never heard of. “I prefer to use my own,” he says, and looks at Jesse like he might object. Jesse nods because he doesn’t know what else to do, and wriggles into a more comfortable position. Gabe watches him for a long moment, before pulling out a condom and tossing it onto Jesse’s chest. Jesse’s confused as to why he leaves the lube, until Gabriel pulls his arms up and swings a leg over Jesse’s chest. 

His knees nestle into Jesse’s armpits, and he arranges Jesse’s arms above his head until he’s satisfied. Catching Jesse’s eye, he says, “If you need a break, do this,” and arranges Jesse’s fingers into a clear signal. Jesse nods, and that’s all the warning he gets before Gabriel’s tugging his mouth open and sliding his cock inside.

Jesse can feel his jaw crack as it’s pushed steadily wider. He wrinkles his brow a bit at the taste of latex - he didn’t even notice him putting the condom on - but better safe than sorry, he guesses. At least the condom is thin, he can still feel Gabriel’s warmth inside. It’s been a minute since he’s done this - Gabriel goes slow as Jesse’s jaw gets used to things, and there’s an audible crack at one point as something goes into alignment. Once he gets a feel for how much he can take, Gabriel starts to speed up. His hands are pinning Jesse’s wrists above his head, hips steadily snapping forward. 

This is pretty much all Gabriel’s show, he’s going too fast for Jesse to really be able to contribute anything. He just keeps his upper teeth cushioned by his lip and presses up with his tongue, relaxing his throat the best he can. Jesse’s finding he weirdly likes this, being held down. So many years with a girl half his size, and he forgot how nice it was to be overpowered himself. 

He pulls his lips in a little tighter and starts to zone out. He can still snatch details here and there - the way Gabriel’s cock curves a little to the left, the way the skin slides that says he’s uncut, the sound of his breath speeding up. There are tears leaking down the sides of Jesse’s face from trying to hold his gag reflex back, and when he looks up and catches Gabriel’s gaze with his own wet eyes, there’s a muttered curse. 

Gabriel pushes in once, twice, and comes with a grunt, shoving to the back of Jesse’s mouth and beyond and staying there. Jesse can _ feel _ him, feel him twitch on his tongue, feel him fill the condom that’s taking the place of air in the entrance to his throat. It’s long, long seconds, long enough that Jesse’s trying to remember what the hell that hand signal was when Gabriel slowly pulls out. He’s staring down intently, watching himself emerge from Jesse’s red, wet mouth. 

Jesse, for his part, is a goddamn mess. There’s tears on his face, he’s fairly sure his top lip is covered in snot, there’s saliva all in his beard, and his lips feel cracked from being stretched so far. He licks them and tastes copper. Gabriel grabs a few tissues from the nightstand, wipes Jesse’s face off with a delicacy that belies how he was wrecking him not a minute ago. Jesse just blinks up at him with a dazed look and tries to smile. Gabriel is still staring at him with those dark, dark eyes, thumb tracing Jesse’s lower lip over and over again.

Finally pulling his hand back and sliding off Jesse’s chest, Gabriel says, “On your stomach,” as he makes his way to the bathroom. Jesse’s glad he isn’t there to see the flopping around that happens, elbows cracking from being in one position too long as he brings them down and turns over. He’s almost surprised to see how hard he is - Jesse hasn’t been consciously thinking about his own arousal at all, but his body is obviously enjoying current events. He carefully tucks his dick underneath him, telling himself not to crush it.

Jesse jumps at the hand on his rear end, turning to see Gabriel sitting next to him with that slight smile of his. He pushes Jesse’s legs apart, running hands over the muscles of his ass, combing his fingers through the hair that covers it. Jesse’s pretty proud of his ass - he runs for miles every day with the dogs, it’s muscle built up from good, hard work. There’s the click of a cap and a slick finger is petting over his hole. Jesse can’t help but make a pleased sound, and the finger doesn’t pause before pushing in. Although he hasn’t truly bottomed since the previous decade, Jesse is no stranger to getting himself off with fingers.

Gabriel is going slow, so slow. “I don’t need that much,” Jesse says, turning his head just enough to see Gabriel out of the corner of his eye. Gabriel doesn’t respond, just pushes deeper, scraping his fingers over a spot that makes Jesse’s whole body spasm. Long minutes are spent just taking Jesse apart with fingers alone, and by the end Jesse’s twitching with oversensitivity. A glance over sees that Gabriel is hard again, enough to be dripping. Apparently he’s getting as much out of this as Jesse is.

Finally, finally there’s shifting on the bed and the crinkle of the condom wrapper. Jesse jumps at the sting of a bite to his ass, and he turns around to glare at Gabriel. He just smirks against Jesse’s skin, slaps the other cheek with a loud smack, and tells him to grab the headboard. Jesse murmurs  _ bossy, bossy _ to himself, but willingly moves up the bed to hold on to the dark wood. 

Gabriel had spent enough time fingering him that he apparently doesn’t feel the need to go easy now. He pushes into Jesse steadily but not slow, and starts fucking him in heavy, hard strokes as soon as Jesse’s stretched around him. Jesse’s been turned on for far too long, and immediately he has to bite back a moan. There’s another sharp slap to his ass, followed by a muttered _ I want to hear you _ .

Jesse obliges. There’s something freeing about sleeping with someone you’re never going to see again - he doesn’t have to be embarrassed about the needy sounds coming from his throat at the end of every thrust or the moan he lets out when Gabriel changes the angle and hits just the right spot. There’s an unintentional stream of profanity and begging spilling from his mouth, all  _ fuck fuck harder jesus christ please right there fuck no do that again oh please please Gabriel please _ .

Gabriel seems to like it, because now he’s bent half over Jesse’s back, bracing himself with one hand on the mattress as his forehead rests against his spine. Jesse cries out when Gabriel’s other hand comes to wrap around him - nothing has touched him in so long except the coverlet underneath him that it’s almost painful. It doesn’t take much, just a half dozen pumps of Gabriel’s hand and a swipe of his thumb over the head before Jesse is groaning out his orgasm, covering Gabriel’s hand and the bed below. 

Jesse collapses, hands still locked on the top of the headboard but his head dropping down nearly to the pillow, his back a long sinuous curve. Gabriel hammers into him for a half minute more, until he slows and slumps against Jesse’s back. They lay there until Jesse starts to get seriously worried about being permanently glued to the blanket, and Gabriel hoists himself up at Jesse’s weak thrashing, pulling out slowly. Jesse rolls out of the wet spot and onto his back, closing his eyes and idly scratching at a bit of come that’s tacky and stuck to the line of hair under his stomach.

He opens his eyes when he feels eyes on him, looking up to see Gabriel with a wet washcloth in hand. Jesse stretches, smiles up at Gabriel. “Hey there, darlin’.” He half expects the washcloth to be thrown at him, but instead he gets Gabriel sitting next to him, carefully wiping him off. 

“You’re...not what I expected,” he says finally. 

Jesse tilts his head, holds back a slight wince as the cold washcloth hits the raw skin between his cheeks. “And what did you expect?”

Gabriel doesn’t answer, just tosses the washcloth to the side and tugs the come-stained coverlet out from underneath Jesse. He manhandles Jesse, pulling him this way and that until the quilt and sheets that are such high thread count they feel almost frictionless against his skin are arranged around him. Gabriel clicks off the various lights in the suite, looking back at Jesse every so often.

“Are you willing to stay the night?” he asks, standing next to the bed. Given how he practically tucked Jesse in it’s surprising, but Jesse figures it was polite of him to ask anyways.

Jesse smiles sleepily up at him and tugs the sheets aside, making room for Gabriel. “Fair warnin’, I’m a sleep cuddler.” 

He’s pretty sure Gabriel just rolled his eyes at him, but it’s too dark to tell. He gets into bed, though, and before Jesse can do anything he’s turned Jesse around and wrapped himself around his back, a leg shoved between his own and a heavy arm across his waist. Jesse hums to himself in contentment, settles back into Gabriel’s firm chest.

Jesse’s almost asleep when he feels Gabriel’s face, which had been pressed into his shoulder, move. Lips are against his neck, and he can feel warm breath puff across his throat.

“You still awake?”

“Mmm.”

“What’s your name?”

A long pause, as he blinks into the darkness. “Jesse. My name’s Jesse.”

-x-x-x-x-x-

A ringing sound wakes Jesse up. He fumbles for his phone, and his hand hits unfamiliar bedsheets. Waking up more out of sheer confusion, he rolls over until he can get to the landline that’s ringing on the nightstand. 

“H’lo,” he mumbles.

“Hello, sir. This is a courtesy wake up call. Checkout is in half an hour at ten o’clock.”

“Mmmkay. Thank you.” Jesse lets the phone fall, rubbing at his eyes until he feels ready to face the day. The room is still dark, he notices. The blackout curtains are closed, which is probably why he slept in so much - he’d never bothered getting blinds for his tiny apartment so the sun wakes him up every day. Sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Jesse feels every one of his three decades. His hips hurt, his ass hurts, his entire face is sore as hell.

He can’t help smiling to himself as he remembers exactly why he’s so achy. He glances around the room, but the suitcase he’d spotted on the luggage rack the night before and the clothes scattered on the floor are gone. Jesse’s own clothes are draped over the desk. He dresses slowly, skin still weirdly sensitive. There’s some light beard burn on his shoulder where he remembers Gabriel’s cheek rubbing and a few faint marks on his chest, but that’s all that’s visible. 

Jesse looks around for his phone, and finally finds it on the table next to his clothes. It’s holding down an envelope with something written on it. He squints down at the jagged, black writing.

 

_ Jesse -  _

_ I didn’t want to wake you, I made sure there will be a courtesy call. I took the liberty of putting my number into your phone - you really should lock it, you know. Security is important.  _

_ I’ll give a call next time I’m in the area, I know I enjoyed myself and hopefully you’ll think of taking me on again. _

_ \- Gabriel _

 

He frowns in confusion until he opens up the envelope. There’s...a fuck load of money in there. Jesse counts in his head, then recounts again with wide eyes when he realizes they’re all fifties. This is...what is…

Jesus fucking  _ Christ _ Gabriel thought he was a hooker.

He sits there with his mouth hanging open and trying to process things, until there’s a buzz from his phone. It’s a text from Ana asking him to pick up the meds from Angela’s vet office, and he notices that he has five minutes to get himself together and get out.

Between the rumpled shirt, birds’ nest of hair, and bewildered look on his face, Jesse thinks that he probably looks every inch the escort that he was assumed to be as he takes the elevator downstairs. He winces as he pays the overnight parking at first with his credit card, then looks at the envelope and realizes that he has money now. He has...he calculates for a minute. He has rent money. He has possibly two months of rent money plus utilities. Jesus, he knew he was pretty good in bed but god damn, how loaded was Gabriel, exactly?

Jesse makes it to the vet in time, drops off the scripts at the shelter. It’s technically his day off so he ends up at home, staring at a wall. He tries to nap but he slept for nine goddamn hours last night, and he isn’t sure if it was because he was fucked into exhaustion or Gabriel’s arms were just that nice around him or both.

It’s while he’s eating dinner that Genji calls, wanting to know how it went with  Amélie. He apparently sounds weird enough on the phone that Genji just shows up a half hour later, barging his way in with a six-pack that Jesse accepts and a gram that he doesn’t.

Genji shrugs and does a bump off the back of Jesse’s gramma’s antique grapefruit spoon, which he snatches away and raps Genji on the head with. “Stop that, you’re disrespectin’ my gramma’s memory. And why the hell did you set me up with that woman? She looked like she wanted to run away the second she set eyes on me.”

Rolling his eyes, Genji grabs the spoon back before Jesse can do any more damage, twirling it between his fingers. “She’s a regular at the place downtown and we were talking once, she said she liked cats.” 

“Y’sure she wasn’t just tellin’ you she was into women?”

“...now that you mention it, no.” Genji looks Jesse over, sharp eyes taking him in. “But you do look freshly fucked, so what happened?”

Jesse looks helplessly at the ceiling before burying his face in his hands.

“Just spit it out.”

“So that bar, the fancy one. This guy picks me up. Older, real good lookin’, no idea what he wanted with me. Incredible night, I could barely walk straight this mornin’.”

“...And?” Genji prompts, at Jesse’s silence. 

Jesse hands over the envelope. Genji reads it, sculpted black eyebrows raising higher and higher. The laughter starts about halfway through, and by the time he reaches the end he’s slid off the couch and is half-curled under the coffee table, snorting.

“Only you, Jesse McCree. Only you would go out on a date with a ballerina and end the night as a prostitute.”

“I swear, I didn’t know!”

“I am sure. I would bet all the money in that envelope that he did say something, in fact said several things, but you were blinded by a handsome face and let him lead you around by the cock.” Genji grins as Jesse huffs and looks away, crossing his arms.

“So exactly how good was this guy?”

Jesse shakes his head. “Maybe it’s just cause it’s been a while, but...goddamn. I can’t remember it ever bein’ that good.”

“If he calls, are you going to pick up?”

Jesse has the no on the tip of his tongue, but he also knows what the weight of Gabriel feels like there and the word doesn’t make it out. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before shrugging helplessly at Genji.

The other man rolls his eyes, pulling himself back upright and onto the couch. “Well, then, congratulations on your new career as a sex worker.”

“I’m not - Genji, I can’t - I -”

Genji cuts off his spluttering with a hand. “Oh, stop it. I know plenty of perfectly nice men and women in the industry who work hard and are good at their jobs. Stop being judgemental, because you’re already part of it whether you like it or not. You had sex, you got paid. End of story. Now you just need to think about if he calls again. And if it was as good for him as it obviously was for you, then he  _ will _ call.”

Jesse rolls his eyes but nods. No matter how good it was - and god, it really was - he privately resolves to not pick up if Gabriel calls. In any event, he had said ‘next time I’m in the area’, indicating he wasn’t local. So it might not even happen again, anyways. 

Genji cajoles him into a better mood the way he always can, and they kill the six pack watching movies they’ve seen a hundred times before with half an eye while Genji bitches about the current issues he has with his bartenders. It’s comforting, familiar, and by the time Jesse goes to bed the only evidence of anything different than a normal night is an envelope tucked into a book on his shelf and a lingering ache in his jaw.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It’s three weeks later when Jesse gets the call.

It’s a Wednesday night at Genji’s smaller club, and Jesse’s sitting at the bar where Genji is half bartending and half doing paperwork. It’s the club’s slowest night and the only time Jesse will dare to set foot in the place. 

“Another drink, partner.”

“Get it yourself,” Genji says, not looking up from his files. Jesse knows how much money Genji makes, but he wouldn’t trade it for all the work the man has to do just to keep everything running.

Jesse goes behind the bar, makes sure to pull out the most top shelf bourbon there is.

“You’re paying for that.”

“You’d make your oldest friend pay for well liquor?”

“Well liquor my ass -” Genji stops as a phone rings. It’s Jesse’s, still sitting on the bar. Genji picks it up, a smirk on his face blooming as he spots the contact name and hands the phone to Jesse. Jesse, for his part, nearly has a heart attack when he spots it. 

“Are you answering?”

“No. No, I’m - fuck.” Jesse hits the accept button. “Hello?”

“Jesse.” Just the sound of that low voice has Jesse twitching in his jeans. “This is Gabriel, from the Harbor Hotel a few weeks back.”

“Yeah, Gabriel, hello. How are you?” Genji is now actively laughing at Jesse, hand clamped over his mouth.

“I’m well. I’ll be in town soon, and was wondering if you were free Friday evening.”

“I..uh. Sure. Same time and place?”

Gabriel says yes, but Jesse’s attention is taken away by Genji frantically waving an arm at him. “I’m sorry, Gabriel, could you hold on for just a minute?” Jesse says, and then hisses, “What?” at Genji before he gets an answer.

“Get his full name so Hanzo can run a background check,” Genji whispers vehemently. 

“What? No.”

“Do it, you ass. If you’re really doing this, you need to be safe.”

Jesse sighs but brings the phone back up to his ear. “Sorry about that, darlin’. Listen, I know it’s a hassle, but could I get your full name? If this is going to be anythin’ like a...regular thing, my - ah - boss wants to do just a bit of a check on you.”

“Of course. Gabriel J Reyes, age 50. That should be enough to find me.”

“Sure. I’ll, uh. I’ll text you if everythin’ looks good.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Jesse.” There’s the sound of a disconnected call, and Jesse lets his head hit the bartop without taking the phone away from his ear.”

“So congrats on joining the business,” Genji says, amusement in his voice clear.

“Yeah, yeah. Background check?”

“You described this guy as being covered in scars and probably able to rip you apart with one hand. Forgive me for wanting to make sure he doesn’t have a record before you fall into bed - a paid bed, mind you - again with him. What’s his name?”

Jesse tells him, and Genji texts his brother. Hanzo is...something cryptic that neither he nor Genji talk about. He knew they had a brutal childhood back in Japan, and while Genji rebelled by diving into the high life, Hanzo went into some kind of mysterious security service. Decent guy, but he’s always made Jesse vaguely nervous.

Whatever, he’s sure that whoever Gabriel Reyes is, it can’t be too bad.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“So you found an interesting one.”

Jesse pauses with his mouth full of omelette before swallowing. “Beg pardon?”

Genji sets down his mug of tea and picks up his phone. “Hanzo said that what popped up on this guy’s background check is the same kind of thing that pops up when someone tries to look Hanzo himself up.”

“I...don’t know what that means.”

“It means that your Mr. Reyes was born in Los Angeles. Mother and sister still around, has a couple of nieces. West Point with all honors, went into the Army immediately afterwards. Worked his way up through the ranks and about ten years in, he effectively disappears.”

“Huh?”

Genji sets his phone down, leans forward. “He disappears the same way Hanzo has, in terms of records. A few things show up - bought a car a few years ago, father passed about a decade back, but that’s it. Excellent credit score, but nothing as to where he lives, what he does, or anything about what he’s been up to for the past decade or so.” Genji sits back, shrugs. “Hanzo said that the fact there’s so little information means either he’s new to...whatever he’s into, or he’s very, very good at it.”

Jesse thinks a moment about the scars covering Gabe’s body, how he moved with such self-assurance, the way it seemed like he hadn’t been kissed in so long. “I’m bettin’ on the latter,” he murmurs.

“Me too.” 

“So is whatever he’s into...illegal?” The last thing Jesse needs is to get dragged into someone else’s shit.

“Hanzo doesn’t think so. He said that he’s probably into something military but gone dark, or possibly some kind of mercenary service. There’s no official Army discharge papers, but apparently that can be vanished pretty easily.”

“So not in the safest of professions, but he’s been in it long enough and probably won’t kill me.”

Genji settles back in his chair, takes a thoughtful bite of egg. “I’d say it makes sense, with what you said. This guy probably can’t form any personal attachments with whatever he does, stands to reason he’d look for escorts.”

“You didn’t see how hot he was. He could just pick someone up, anywhere.”

Genji smiles. “Jesse, Jesse, Jesse. You don’t pay escorts for sex. You pay them to go away afterwards and keep their mouths shut.”

“Oh.” Jesse’s not quite sure if he feels used or trusted. Maybe a bit of both. Before he can think about it, he’s pulled out his phone and is texting Gabriel back. 

_ > check was all good. same time and place? _

The reply comes less than a minute later.

_ < I’ll see you Friday. _

Jesse sets his phone down and looks up to see Genji looking at him with an inscrutable expression on his face. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” he says, finally.

“Not a goddamned clue.”

-x-x-x-x-x-

Jesse had been keeping the cash in a carved wooden box he’d picked up years ago but had never done anything with, figuring that out of sight was out of mind. Even though it might technically come in handy, Jesse isn’t really hurting for money - Ana pays him well enough and he’s picked up a few more training clients so it hasn’t been too much of a temptation to dip into it. 

He finally does take some, to pay for the clothing. Jesse’s realized that Gabriel expects what he’d seen that night - someone put together and able to mix with the kind of people that can afford to stay in a penthouse suite. Jesse’s wardrobe, meanwhile, consists of mostly plaid, jeans stained with most bodily fluids that a dog or cat can produce, and work boots. He spends a torturous afternoon with Genji, letting him pick things out for Jesse that he insists will make him look good.

Ten o’clock on Friday finds Jesse with drink in hand at the bar. It’s barely a minute after he gets there that there’s a hand on his back that shouldn’t feel as familiar as it does. He turns and there’s Gabriel, large as life and somehow even more attractive than in his memories. Jesse can’t help the smile that spreads across his face. “Hey.”

Gabriel’s face doesn’t change, but his hand that’s moved down to the small of Jesse’s back tightens. 

Jesse lets himself be pulled to the elevator, the same as before. Gabriel’s arm around him is tighter, though, his hand having moved to the far side of Jesse’s waist so as to pull him against Gabriel’s side. Jesse spends a minute thinking about who Gabriel might be, brain swirling with what Genji had told him, until he consciously tries to blank his mind. He’s here for sex with a gorgeous man, it doesn’t have to be more than that. 

The moment the suite door is closed Gabriel has Jesse shoved up against it, mouth slamming into his and hand working its way into his pants. Jesse finds his first orgasm of the evening just minutes later, moaning against Gabriel’s lips as he comes all over both their shirts. He sags back against the door as Gabriel contentedly mouths his way along Jesse’s jawline and down to his shoulder and back.

“You didn’t even let me get my pants off, darlin’,” Jesse finally says once he’s caught his breath.

Gabriel shrugs, and gets them undressed with what Jesse can’t help but see now as military efficiency. They tumble into bed a minute later, and Gabriel spends a while stroking Jesse back up to hardness before getting him on all fours and fucking him so intensely Jesse thinks he can feel him in his chest.

They’re laying collapsed, heaving chests slowing and sweat drying when Jesse’s stomach growls. He covers his face with a hand, sure that he’s red. “Sorry, sugar. Been runnin’ around all day and you certainly know how to take it out of a man.”

He looks over at Gabriel, who has his eyes closed and a look of the closest thing to contentment that Jesse’s seen on his face yet. He turns, catches Jesse looking at him. 

“What do you want?” It’s the first thing he’s said all night other than grunts and groans.

“Beg pardon?”

Gabriel gets up and walks over to the desk, unselfconsciously stripping the condom off and tossing it in the trash on the way. Jesse’s eyes are locked on the white streak still on Gabriel’s dick when he realizes he’s talking.

“Here.” He tosses the room service menu onto Jesse’s chest. “Get whatever you want.” 

Jesse blinks up at him. He has no idea what he’s supposed to do here. “What are you havin’?”

“Steak here’s good.”

“Get that for me, then too.” He thinks for a minute. “But no mushrooms, if it comes with them.”

“Not a fan?”

“Fungus is disgustin’, no matter what fancy sauce you put on it.”

Gabriel picks up the hotel phone, places the order. It shows up just as Jesse’s located his underwear, which ended up somehow draped over the potted plant in the corner.

They eat in comfortable silence, but when he’s not alone Jesse isn’t good at being quiet. He starts talking, almost without realizing it, telling Gabriel about when he was out to dinner with friends and they had mac and cheese that no one knew had lobster in it, especially not the friend who was allergic to shellfish. It’s not a particularly amazing story, but it breaks the ice a bit. 

Gabriel speaks, really, for the first time in their whole excuse for a relationship, saying how his sister would chew up her broccoli, hide it in a napkin, and then sneak it under the table to the dog. The mention of dogs makes Jesse light up, and he tries to talk about them the best he can without mentioning his actual job.

“So do you have a dog?” Gabriel asks, after Jesse waxes particularly eloquent about Angela’s standard poodle that is far, far too intelligent for any four legged creature.

“Hah, I wish. My place doesn’t allow them, and I’m not home enough as it is, it’d be cruel.” That’s partially a lie. Jesse’s fairly sure Ana would let him bring a dog with him to work, but his hole-in-the-wall apartment really isn’t big enough for anything bigger than a hamster, and Jesse likes big dogs.

“Mmm.” Gabriel looks away before gathering the dirty plates, and Jesse rewinds what he just said. God, Gabriel thinks he’s a hooker and now must think he’s out getting fucked so much that he’s not even home enough for a pet. Jesus Christ, this is all ridiculous.

Jesse’s bent over gathering the napkin rings that rolled across the floor, and when he straightens up he can see Gabriel staring at his ass with what he could only call a look of hunger, regardless of the meal they just had. 

“You interested in some dessert?” Jesse asks with a crooked smile.

Gabriel rolls his eyes before pushing Jesse to the bed. “Not right now, I’m too full to do to you what I want to.” 

Jesse shivers a bit at that, and lets Gabriel bundle him into bed. Once again he’s asleep in just minutes with the strong arms around him, holding him down in the best of ways.

He wakes in the early hours of the morning practically moaning from a dream about Gabriel fucking him, only to find that there’s lubed fingers sliding in and out of him.

“This okay?” Gabriel murmurs into his ear.

Jesse twists his head around just enough to catch his mouth, uncaring of their stale morning breath. “Best way to wake up.”

Gabriel fucks him on his side, slow but so deep and hard that Jesse digs fingernail marks into his own thigh. When Gabriel comes he sighs, soft and low into Jesse’s ear. Jesse’s still half asleep, in that strange liminal space between dream and action. He sleepy enough that he almost doesn’t need Gabriel to get him off but he does anyways: a strong, calloused hand wrapped around him and a heartbeat pressed to his back. 

Jesse is out before Gabriel is, falling back asleep almost immediately after he comes.

He wakes up when Gabriel gets up this time, watching through half slitted eyes as the curtains are pulled for just enough light to get through for Gabriel to find his things. 

“Leavin’ so early?”

Gabriel stills, an almost animal-like reaction that makes Jesse understand in just a moment all the scars covering his body. He resumes packing, saying, “Early flight out of Logan.”

“Mmm.” 

Jesse watches, laying languorous and lazy in bed as Gabriel packs with the efficiency of a man who’s lived a decent amount of his life out of suitcases. He’s put together in minutes, wearing a perfectly pressed shirt and pants that seem to appear from nowhere. Shrugging his jacket on, he looks down at Jesse, naked and just barely covered by a sheet. 

“Stop that,” he says as Jesse stretches his arms out and arches his back, muscles shifting under his skin in the dim light. 

Jesse smiles, slow and sleepy and a little bit teasing. “Come on,” he says, motioning sloppily towards himself with one hand. “One for the road.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes but leans down, kissing Jesse with firm lips and a tight jaw. Jesse reaches up and strokes the side of Gabriel’s face, the freshly shaved skin around his goatee soft under his fingers. He makes the kiss easier, almost sweet as he lets it come to a natural end, pressing his lips gently to Gabe’s upper lip at the last second.

Eyes closed, Gabriel lets his forehead rest against Jesse’s for a moment. “This is a bad idea,” he mutters to himself, so quietly Jesse almost doesn’t catch it even though they’re so close. 

Jesse presses a last kiss to Gabriel’s lips and pulls back, telling himself in his head that Gabriel is referring to something not him, that it doesn’t matter anyways. “Too late, darlin’. Now you have a flight to catch.”

Gabriel gathers his things, shutting the curtains so the room is in darkness once more. “Go back to sleep, I requested a wakeup call for you.”

Jesse nestles back down into the sinfully comfortable bed, and is asleep soon after. He wakes up before the wakeup call, and drowses in the warm blankets until his bladder finally pulls him out of bed. He gets dressed slowly, and once more finds an envelope on the desk. There’s no note this time but the money is the same, even though he ate a decently expensive meal the night before.

He drives home, not paying all that much attention to the road. The first time, Gabriel was fantastic in bed. This time, he was all that but also an interesting person. He listened so intently to Jesse, that it made him feel...important. Even though it was just sex, in the end. But this time he got to watch Gabriel’s face when he talked about his sister, even saw him laugh just a bit when Jesse accidentally sent a green bean flying across the table.

He thinks about how Gabriel said  _ This is a bad idea _ , and understands exactly what he means.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Jesse sees Gabriel two weeks later, then three weeks after that. Each time leaves Jesse with aching body and a deep sense of satisfaction. Each time he learns little bits about Gabriel, the small shreds of information that the man lets loose. He’s mistrustful, either by profession or personality, but he’s slowly letting Jesse in fraction by fraction.

It’s three in the morning on an early June night and it’s their fifth time together. Jesse had fallen asleep after Gabriel had fucked him in the shower, but they both get up a few hours later - awake, but in that odd wee-hours-of-the-morning way.

Gabriel tugs at Jesse’s arm, and he goes along with it until he realizes Gabriel’s opening the sliding glass door that goes to the balcony.

“Not sure if you noticed, but we’re both a little naked here.”

Despite his objections, Jesse lets Gabriel lead him out. Looking around, he can see that they’re at the highest point for miles in every direction, the chill Atlantic ocean spread out over most of the view. There are oversized lounge chairs, and Gabriel drops down onto one before tugging Jesse down onto his lap.

Jesse squirms around until he’s curled up and comfortable, Gabriel’s arms around his waist and his temple resting against Gabriel’s collarbone. He’s warm and cozy and it’s almost enough to send him right back to sleep. There’s something about Gabriel that Jesse finds...reassuring. Despite how they met, despite what they do, even when he’s being facefucked ‘til he cries or hammered against a wall until he gouges fingernail marks in the doorframe, Gabriel is steady. A strange source of stability that Jesse doesn’t want to admit has become important to him over the past few months.

He’s never quite sure what Gabriel thinks of him. Jesse knows that he finds him attractive, that he trusts him enough to tell him bits about his family and friends, that every once in awhile he can get a real smile out of him or, on one momentous occasion, a full-throated laugh that creased all of his scars deeper yet made him seem decades younger.

Jesse can never exactly tell what moments like this mean, times when Gabriel is wrapped around him and seemingly content just to be with Jesse with no sex involved. Is it because he actually likes Jesse? Or because of what Genji had said all those weeks ago, that he knows Jesse will leave afterwards and keep his mouth shut?

There’s a familiar clicking sound, and Jesse opens his eyes to see Gabe setting aside a battered Zippo lighter, a lit cigarette in his mouth. 

“Didn’t know you smoked, ‘specially with all this,” Jesse says, trailing a hand up Gabriel’s muscled chest before reaching for the cigarette. Gabriel pulls it away before Jesse’s hand can get there, blowing a long stream of smoke up to the black sky above. He holds the cigarette to Jesse’s lips, lets him take in a deep breath that tastes of expensive tobacco and Gabriel’s mouth before drawing it back.

“What brand is that? Tastes good.”

Gabriel inhales long and slow, exhales out the side of his mouth away from Jesse. “Don’t know, actually. A friend brings back this loose tobacco from her hometown, hand rolls a bunch every once in awhile. I steal a pack whenever I’m at her place.” His free hand, the one not holding the cigarette back at Jesse’s lips, is rubbing absently over Jesse’s thigh, alternately ruffling up and smoothing down the hair there. “And to address your earlier remark, we all have our vices. I don’t make a habit of it.”

There’s something bitter in his mouth the next time Jesse takes a drag. Him and cigarettes, Gabriel’s secret little sins. 

They pass the cigarette back and forth until Gabriel carelessly stubbs it out against the arm of what Jesse is sure is an extremely expensive chair. Hand now free, Gabriel uses it to comb through Jesse’s hair, tangled from air drying after the shower. 

“You asleep? Normally you’d be talking about god knows what by this point.” 

It doesn’t sound like a complaint about Jesse’s tendency to run his mouth, so he’s not going to take it as one. “Nah, Gabriel. Tired but not quite there yet, y’know?”

The click of the lighter again, another stream of smoke. “Gabe.”

“Hmm?”

Inhale, exhale. A warm hand on his thigh, another holding the cigarette to Jesse’s lips. “You can call me Gabe.”

Jesse turns the shorter name over in his mouth, exhales it with the smoke in a kiss against Gabriel - no,  _ Gabe’s _ throat. The hand on his thigh tightens, pulls Jesse that little bit closer. Jesse listens to the rhythm of Gabe’s lungs and the crash of the waves hundreds of feet below and tries not to consider why he feels comfortable enough to be quiet.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“I don’t need to go to the charity ball, Ana. We’ve got all of the tables already set, and if we don’t get that paperwork on last month’s adoptions in to the 501c people -”

“I already saved a place for you and a friend at a table. The paperwork isn’t due until Monday, and you’ve been working yourself ragged on the new run every night for the past week. When was the last time you enjoyed yourself?” Ana asks, cutting off Jesse’s objections without a second thought.

Jesse had been working quite a bit, lately. He was the only person who had any real experience with construction - not to mention the only one Ana trusted after that incident with Sombra and the nail gun - so he’d been singlehandedly putting together the new dog runs that they finally had bought the land for at the back of the rescue. He hasn’t even seen Gabe in most of a month - he’d told him that it would happen, something about business overseas, but still. 

“Fine. What time do you need me there?”

“Eight, the same as all the other guests. You’re not doing any work on this, you know that it’s all organized. Get Genji to take you out and make you look decent, I’m assuming you’re bringing him?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Ana sighs over the phone. Jesse can hear the taptaptaptap of her nails that tends to happen when she’s worried about something. He knows what’s coming - “McCree, you need to put yourself out there. It’s been most of a year since that girl, and I haven’t seen you on a single date since.”

Jesse almost objects and brings up Gabe, but this is Ana and that is absolutely not a can of worms he intends to open. A dozen meetings with a fuckbuddy who thinks that Jesse is an escort does not a relationship make. “Ana, I’m fine. ‘S nice that you worry and all, but you’ve gotta daughter to spend that worry on already.”

“Oh, I am aware. Did you hear what that idiot partner of hers did the other day?” Ana is off to the races complaining about  _ Fareeha’s partner is a fool _ and  _ when is she going to make detective _ and  _ do you think she’s bringing Angela _ and Jesse knows that he’s safe for the moment.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“I know you said they went all out, but I wasn’t expecting...this.” Genji is looking around with a bland expression that Jesse knows is his ‘secretly impressed’ look.

“I made you get a tuxedo, what did you expect?”

“That I was going to be overdressed, but it’s not like I would care.” This is true, as is the fact that Jesse would find it hilarious to make Genji pay hundreds of dollars for a new tuxedo only to have everyone else be there in khakis. In this case, however, Genji already had the tuxedo and everyone was dressed to the nines. 

Jesse had already had a tux thanks to Ana’s insistence on him attending the ball a few times over the years, but Genji had forced a haircut on him as well as a new shirt. His shoes, which he already had for his Gabe nights, had been deemed acceptable. 

“Oooh, is that an open bar?”

“Yes, and you are limited to two. Two, Genji.”

He pouts, wrapping an arm around Jesse’s waist and looking up at him with his best faux-innocent eyes. “You are aware I can drink anyone here, up to and very much including you, under the table.”

Jesse slings a friendly arm around his shoulders, rolling his own eyes and trying not to give in to the urge to muss his perfectly styled, green-highlighted hair as they walk over to the bar. “Yeah, and you donated exactly zero dollars to tonight’s festivities. Make a donation and then you can drink as much as you want.”

“That might not be a bad idea, actually,” Genji muses. “We could have a puppy play night, donate half of the entrance fee…”

“Fuckin’ Christ, Genji. As much as we need money, I don’t know if we need it that badly.”

“Don’t make me ask the furries, Jesse.”

Jesse’s laughing hard enough that he stumbles when Genji shoves a playful hip into him, and he bumps shoulders with someone who’s broad enough that Jesse just bounces off.

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that - the hell? Gabe?” Sure enough, it’s Gabe looking delectable in a perfectly tailored tuxedo that Jesse’s bumped into. Gabe looks just as surprised, steadying Jesse with a hand on his arm that he leaves there for longer than appropriate given the setting.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m a donor,” Gabe says, and of fucking course he is. Jesse’s about to say something to that effect when Gabe’s eyes flick over Genji, seeming to analyze everything about what he is, how he’s positioned, and who he is to Jesse in a split second. He meets Genji’s eyes for a long moment that stretches until he breaks the gaze and looks back at Jesse. “Sorry to interrupt. I’ll see you around, Jesse.” He gives a brief nod to them both and vanishes into the crowd.

Genji pulls away from Jesse and heads the final few steps to the bar. “Martini, dry, and keep them coming.” He downs half of it in one gulp before pointing a finger at Jesse. “And you do  _ not _ say anything.” 

Jesse spreads his hands in amused acceptance, half laughing at Genji and half coming down off the adrenaline high of seeing Gabe out of goddamned nowhere, outside of their familiar context.

There’s a fresh drink in Genji’s hand by the time he turns around. “So I take it that hulking piece of granite and cheekbones is the illustrious Gabriel?”

Retrieving his own drink from the bartender, Jesse nods. “Haven’t seen him in a while, said he’d be runnin’ around on business. Certainly didn’t expect to see him here.”

“Obviously, if the death glare he gave me was any indication.”

“That wasn’t a death glare. He just…” Jesse doesn’t know how to put it without sounding pathetic. “You have to know how to read him.”

Genji laughs, something brittle in it. “Jesse, I manage two clubs - I do nothing all night but read people. And that man wanted to eviscerate me for having my hands on you.” There’s a moment, as Genji thinks. “God damnit, he thought I was your client. I don’t need to hire a hooker! This body gets laid for free!”

“Holy shit, keep your voice down,” Jesse hisses, taking away his third martini before he can start drinking it. “You’re cut off.”

“No, now give me that back.” Genji leans down and sips from it right out of Jesse’s hand, who gives up with a sigh and hands the glass over. He leans back against the bar, thoughtful. “I can see the military thing. And the, whatever now. Black ops or what have you. Has he said anything about his job?”

Gabe tells Jesse...things. Things that don’t matter, like how his mother taught him how to cook as a kid. Things that do, like how his friend’s marriage is on the rocks and he doesn’t know what to do to help. But nothing is anything that places Gabe in context, that lets Jesse connect him to the other dots. It’s all just single lines, with whole paragraphs around it redacted. 

Gabe talks with his fingers soft on Jesse’s cheek and hard around his wrists, with how he wraps so tightly around him when they finally make it to bed and how he always kisses him goodbye in the mornings whether Jesse’s awake or not. With how he pushes him until he cries, then wipes away the tears with gentle hands. It’s still just left of reality, though. Still just limited to the two of them and a penthouse suite that Jesse now knows every inch of. Still ending with a stack of money in an envelope.

Jesse isn’t sure what his face is doing, but Genji is looking at him with something like sympathy on his face. “Jesse, no. No, no, no. They tell the client not to fall for the hooker, but the opposite is true, too.”

“I’m not really a hooker.”

“Sure you’re not. Are you ready to tell him that?”

Jesse opens his mouth, then closes it again. He’s been scraping away and gaining Gabe’s trust for months now. Not out of trying to get anything out of it, but because - fuck, because Jesse  _ wants _ him. Telling him after all that would be…

“No.”

Genji pulls Jesse’s half-finished drink away from him and downs it. “Come on, let’s go say hi to Ana and then you can drive me home. I promise not to pay you after.” 

A reluctant laugh is dragged out of Jesse, and Genji ruffles his hair before throwing an arm around his neck and pressing a sloppy kiss to the side of his head. As they make their way through the crowd, neither man notices Gabe watching and frowning after them as some old wealthy man with a shaky voice tries to talk to him about yachts.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Jesse gets the text just a few days later, Gabe asking for their usual Friday evening. Jesse showers and dresses, but he’s tired when he does it. There’s a part of him that wonders why the hell he’s putting on the fitted button up and slacks when Gabe’s just going to pull it off of him when he’s a step inside the door. There’s another part of him that looks at his closet full of flannel and wants to know what Gabe would do if he showed up in it. A third part of him appreciates it, though, all the trappings of respectability. In these clothes, Jesse’s someone who’s deserving of Gabe, someone attractive enough for Gabe to really want. Someone who wears a tux as easily as he did at the charity ball isn’t someone who could handle jeans that’ll never get the dog shit stains out.

Sure enough Jesse loses his clothing roughly five seconds after getting in to the suite. It’s...more than usual, though. Rougher. Jesse loses at least one button, and Gabe loses a few off of his own shirt. It’s not bad, just a bit surprising.

The sex is rougher too, but this time not exactly in a good way. Gabe takes him from behind, pushing down with a hand on the back of Jesse’s neck until he’s breathing into the sheets, hips hoisted up high behind him so Gabe can pound into him. He fucks him hard and comes quickly, hand still firm on Jesse’s neck. Gabe pulls out and reaches down, gets Jesse off almost too fast with tight fingers and a brutal pace. It’s an orgasm so it feels good, technically, but somehow it’s not. 

Gabe collapses facedown on the bed next to Jesse. It’s been all of ten minutes since they walked through the door.

Jesse lets his hips down slowly, props his head up on an arm as he looks over at Gabe. “What’s wrong?”

Gabe turns his head towards Jesse but doesn’t look at him. “There’s nothing -”

“Don’t even try to feed me that bullshit. I don’t know which one of us you were tryin’ to punish there, but I don’t appreciate bein’ fucked like it’s my fault.” 

“It’s not you.” Gabe doesn’t elaborate, but Jesse knows him enough to hear the truth in his voice. He’d been worried that he’d somehow crossed a line by...running into Gabe? Being friends with Genji? He hadn’t been sure, until now, hearing Gabe sound so tired.

Jesse gets up, goes to root around in the bathroom. He finds a bottle of some no doubt disgustingly expensive lotion, and brings it out with him. Gabe hasn’t moved. 

Slinging a leg over Gabe’s hips, Jesse settles himself on Gabe’s ass, bouncing a few times. “Better’n a yoga ball,” he mutters to himself as he squirts some lotion onto his palm and warms it between his hands. He leans down and rubs it into Gabe’s back, giving everything a generous coating before starting to work the muscles of Gabe’s shoulders. His back is uncomfortably hard on the best of days, and now it’s like a brick wall covered by skin. Jesse digs his fingers into a knot, and is rewarded by a soft hiss of pain that fades as the knot loosens.

It’s a solid five minutes of Jesse working his way down Gabe’s back, the only sound occasional grunts of pain or hums of pleasure, before either of them speaks.

“My one friend. Jack.”

“The one with the marriage?”

“Yeah. We’ve been friends for decades, but we’re also coworkers of a sort. In, hmm. Parallel departments.”

Jesse makes a small sound of understanding, but is reluctant to do any more. Gabe’s never talked about work before and he doesn’t want to break the spell.

“I’m sure when you did that background check on me there was less than you’d expect. That’s how it’s supposed to be - for all intents and purposes, I’m not supposed to really exist.”

“Still military?” There’s silence. “It’s okay if you can’t say.”

“Of a sort. Technically.” Gabe makes a very quiet noise as Jesse digs his thumbs in under the left side of Gabe’s ribcage. There’s a bad scar here, something that could almost be - well, probably is in fact - some kind of exit wound. When they get up in the morning, stiff and sleepy, Gabe sometimes favors this side a bit. Jesse works at the thick scar tissue until he feels the muscle underneath giving way.

“In any event, Jack and I sometimes end up on opposite sides of the same issue. This time it’s...we haven’t been able to work through it. Argued a lot this week. Nasty, the way you can when you’ve known each other too long.”

Jesse stays quiet, says he’s listening with his hands.

“We’ve got this mutual friend, from the old days. She got out, though. She’s been up my ass about it all, even sicced my goddaughter on me about it. And it’s just…” Gabe makes a frustrated sound. “It’s not their business, to start with, and it’s just another part of her campaign to get me to retire. And Jack’s just...Jack. He’s always so sure he’s right, and to give him credit he is, most of the time. But it’s my job to be right too, and on issues a hell of a lot stickier than he normally deals with.” Gabe folds his arms under his head, sighs into his bicep. “I’m sure he’s complaining to his husband the way I am now, and that poor man’s been through enough over the years.”

There’s something warm in Jesse’s chest, at how Gabe talks to him like his friend talks to his husband. He tries to tamp it down, telling himself that’s not what this is at all, that’s not how this works.  _ You pay them to go away afterwards and keep their mouths shut.  _

“Can you compromise a little? What’s the worst that could happen?” Jesse offers, dragging his hands up Gabe’s spine.

“People die.” His tone is flat. 

Jesse’s hands pause, resume much slower and lighter. “Oh.”

Gabe sighs, twists his body so he’s faceup under Jesse. Even though they’re naked they’re both soft, sex the last thing on their minds. “I don’t mean to dump this on you. I’ve been in the job too long, it’s frustrating, and you’re -” Gabe’s face twists into something that’s trying to be a smile, but there’s a razor-sharp edge of melancholy to it. “You’re too easy to talk to, Jesse.”

Jesse reaches down, cradles the side of Gabe’s face. He tugs up a bit, pulls Gabe’s jaw to meet him in a long, slow kiss that has nothing behind it but reassurance.  Jesse rolls up onto his knees, hits the light. He swings his leg back over and settles down on his back next to Gabe. He tugs and pulls at him - “Nope, this is what you need tonight” - until Gabe is wrapped around his chest, head tucked underneath Jesse’s chin.

He runs his fingers through Gabe’s hair, over and over as he feels the breaths across his sternum start to slow. “Go to sleep, darlin’,” he murmurs. “I’ve got you.” 

For the first time in all their nights together, Gabe falls asleep first.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“...and then she says, ‘One more word out of you, Jesse, and I put you in the drunk tank.’ I of course tell her that she wouldn’t dare, but she says that that counts as a word an’ shoves me in with these stoned frat boys and a set of drag queens that got pulled in for drunk and disorderly.”

Gabe chuckles softly into Jesse’s chest, tracing patterns on the skin that distractingly keep circling around his nipple. “I still can’t believe that you’re friends with a cop, given, you know. What you do.”

Jesse shifts a little uncomfortably. “Nah it’s...she doesn’t know, really, and we’ve been friends forever.” He puts a note of brightness in his voice, trying to distract. “At least I knew all the queens, they work at my friend’s club so we were able to get him to bail us all out.”

Smiling a bit, Gabe rolls away and stretches. Jesse appreciates on a deep, non-objectifying level how his muscles shift under his skin. “Your life sounds very exciting.”

“It really, really isn’t. My twenties were filled with some dumb decisions, but so far this decade’s been treatin’ me pretty well.”

“Do you ever…” Gabe trails off and Jesse glances over. He knows Gabe’s tells by this point, can see the tension in his arms as they fold behind his head. He shakes it off though, turns on his side to run a hand down over the curve of Jesse’s waist. “Never mind.” Gabe watches his fingers move over Jesse’s skin, the nails scratching just enough to make him shiver. “What did you want to be when you grew up?” he asks idly.

Jesse turns over onto his back, lets Gabe’s hand trail over his stomach. “Well, I’ll let you know once I do grow up.” Gabe lightly smacks Jesse’s stomach and he grins, “Yeah, laugh it up, old man.” He looks up at the ceiling, considers the question. “Always wanted to work with animals. Thought about bein’ a vet until I realized exactly how much memorization was involved.” He chuckles to himself a bit. “All things considered I think I’m doin’ all right. How about you?”

Gabe doesn’t answer at first, just rests his head on Jesse’s stomach and combs his fingers through the hair under Jesse’s navel until it lies as flat as it’s able. “You ever think about getting out of the business?”

Jesse frowns down at the top of Gabe’s head. Of course not - he’s doing just what he said he wanted to do, working with animals. Maybe he’s not paid great because it’s a charity, but he’s got Ana and Sombra and Angie, he’s got the dogs, he’s got - 

Oh.

Fuck, Gabe meant to stop being a hooker. God- that, that fucker, he’s trying to goddamn save Jesse in his own idiot way. What an asshole. 

“Gabe,” he tries to make his voice gentle but he’s sure some annoyance is leaking through. “You’ve got enough on your plate. Don’t try and save me along with the rest of the world.”

Gabe’s hand stills, then starts up again. Jesse changes the subject, tells Gabe about a guy he saw at a coffee shop that brought an entire desktop computer in with him. Gabe goes along with it, but Jesse can tell that there’s more he wants to say.

Damnit.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“Come on, do you want everyone making fun of the club owner with a flat ass?”

“My ass is tighter than yours, Jesse McCree.”

“Nah, you’re just smaller boned. You need exercise other than gettin’ laid to actually maintain anything, y’know.”

Genji glares at him, but dutifully finishes his stretches. “How far are we going, again?”

Jesse shrugs. “I usually take ‘em for about five miles. Laika can go farther, but Otto doesn’t have her stamina.” Fareeha’s police dog could run ten miles and then take down a suspect, but Angie’s lazy poodle didn’t get enough exercise as it was. Jesse is house sitting for Angie - and bringing Fareeha’s dog over to stay as well - while the two of them go to a wedding of one of their college friends. He has a bet going with Sombra as to whether they’ll come back in a relationship or not.

After some prodding Jesse gets Genji going, having him take Otto while Jesse handles the more powerful Laika. The grumpy German shepherd didn’t like anyone except Fareeha and Jesse, barely tolerating even Ana. They start going around the park, slowly at first but picking up speed as Genji adjusts to the pace and to having a dog next to him.

Jesse’s telling Genji about a hoarder’s house that had resulted in a dozen cats now at the shelter when he notices they’re slowing. “You’ve gotta keep the pace up if you want - “

“Isn’t that your man?” Genji says abruptly, cutting him off. Jesse frowns in confusion, until he follows Genji’s eyes across the street, to see Gabe outside an office building in full military uniform looking back at him. 

“Shit. Uh. Okay. Hold on a sec,” Jesse says, considering leaving Laika with Genji before realizing how badly that could go. He glances back and forth before jaywalking - jayrunning, more like - across the street with her beside him.

“Hey, there.” There’s nothing so much Jesse wants to do as yank Gabe forward by that tightly knotted tie and kiss him, but that would be the opposite of appropriate. Jesse takes a moment to give him an appreciative once-over: Gabe is in a perfectly-fitting dark blue uniform, one side of his chest with a “REYES” nametag, the other side so covered in medals and ribbons and bars that the pocket isn’t visible any more. 

“Jesse,” Gabe says, greeting a bit stiff.

“Lookit you,” Jesse says, smile just a smidge off from being a leer. “I’m pretty sure I’ve had dreams of the damper variety that started with you lookin’ just like this.”

Gabe frowns, eyes going from Jesse to Genji across the street and back. “Jesse,” he says again, this time chiding in his voice.

Wincing before Gabe can say anything else, Jesse starts talking fast. “I’m sorry. I mean, you’re at work, and I’m -”

“It’s all right. I don’t want to...take you away from anything,” Gabe says, and at least he doesn’t sound angry. His voice is curiously blank, though.

“Nah, we’re just out for a run. Dogsittin’ for some friends of mine,” Jesse says with a nudge to Laika’s side. She’s growling subvocally, but at least she’s behaving herself in general. Gabe is frowning down at her, head cocked like he’s trying to figure something out. “Don’t mind her,” Jesse says hurriedly. “She doesn’t like anyone but her owner and me, pretty much.”

“Ah. I was going to text you, see if you were free on Friday, but if you’re otherwise occupied…” Gabe looks past Jesse to Genji again.

“I’ll never be too busy for you,” Jesse says automatically, truthfully, and then winces at himself. “I mean -”

Gabe’s smiling, finally, even if it’s that little half smile he gets that Jesse now knows is half fondness and half laughing at him, though never meanly. “I’ll see you then, Jesse. I need to get going.”

“Oh, sure, sure, sorry. I’ll see you then.”

Jesse jogs back across the street to Genji, who looks half amused and half worried. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Seein’ him Friday is all.”

They start running again, and Genji seems to try and start speaking several times before he finally decides on what to say. “How long are you going to do this with him?”

Jesse doesn’t look over, just keeps his eyes on the sidewalk and his feet hitting the ground steadily. 

“Jesse. It’s been a year. A year of you doing something illegal and stupid just to...what, sleep with someone hot?”

“It’s not just that.”

They run for a while longer. “You like him.”

“Well obviously, I -”

“No, Jesse. You know what I mean. You have serious feelings for the man.” A minute of silence, Genji glancing over at Jesse every once in a while. “And so I ask again, this time taking into account your own mental health. How long are you going to do this?”

Jesse just keeps running. 

-x-x-x-x-x-

For the first time ever seeing Gabe, Jesse is less than put together. Someone signed their Dogo Argentino - their  _ fully grown  _ Dogo Argentino - up for training, and though he was half of Jesse’s weight, he was easily twice his strength. Add that in to how the dog only understood Spanish commands - and a different dialect than the one Jesse speaks, at that - and it was a long, painful day. Jesse was pretty sure he pulled at least one muscle in his side, and his shoulder was killing him.

He wears the usual shirt and the jacket and the pants, but doesn’t bother tucking the shirt in and gives up on the idea of a tie. Gabe could take it or leave it. He’d already seen Jesse a few days ago in shorts and an old shirt with ripped off sleeves and a thick layer of sweat, so this couldn’t be seen as worse than that.

Jesse’s a little late, having taken longer than anticipated to get out of the house. Gabe is already at the bar, wearing a grumpy look that only draws his brows down further when he sees Jesse. His lips are thin and compressed, but his hands are gentle as he pulls Jesse close to him. 

The trip up to the suite is uncharacteristically silent. When they get inside Gabe takes Jesse’s shirt off carefully, making sure not to jostle him. He runs expert hands over Jesse’s torso, watching his face and his body for winces. He finally steps back, face blank but eyes blazing.

“Wrenched shoulder, pulled muscles, likely some bruised ribs,” he says, flatly. “What the fuck happened. Tell me who it was.” 

They’re less of questions than orders, and Jesse can suddenly see every inch of Gabe’s military service plastered all over him. “It’s not a big deal, Gabe. The asshole just slipped his collar, and then the leash got tangled around me. Oh, and he only understood Spanish, like, Cuban Spanish? And there’s enough of a difference from Mexican Spanish that it made communication hard -”  

Jesse’s annoyed at the idiots that would get such a powerful dog and not make sure that it wasn’t trained carefully since birth, but at least they were getting help for it now. At least it’s better than that Rottweiler last year who knocked Jesse down the steps and broke his leg. He was pretty sure the dog was more upset at it than he was, in the end.

Gabe just looks angrier and angrier, though his hands are gentle as he keeps undressing Jesse. He maneuvers them into the shower, slapping Jesse’s hands away when he tries to go for Gabe’s cock. He washes Jesse’s hair carefully, paying far more attention to untangling the strands than Jesse ever does. For his part Jesse’s appreciative - he wasn’t looking forward to having to move his arms up above shoulder level.

Drying Jesse off, Gabe leads them to bed. Once again, he grabs Jesse’s wrists when he tries to touch Gabe, holding them in a firm grip. 

“Gabe -”

“No. You’re hurt.” The words are clipped, irate. 

Jesse sighs. “I’m a little banged up. It’s the job, it happens, I’m sure the military isn’t the kindest thing to you, either.” Gabe doesn’t look any happier. “Just...here. Sit up against the headboard for me?”

Gabe finally lets Jesse go after a long look, settles himself back against the pillows. Jesse climbs over, sits himself right down in Gabe’s lap.

“Now,” he says with a wiggle of his hips and some gratification to see Gabe’s cock hardening, “I think you could stretch me out and I could ride you just like this with no harm at all.”

Gabe looks slightly less like he wants to kill someone, but only just. He still grabs the lube off of the nightstand next to him. He wets his fingers, but hesitates once he slips them behind Jesse. 

“Come on, darlin’, you’re givin’ me a complex here,” Jesse says quietly. He looks down at Gabe from just a few inches away, threads his fingers in his hair and leans down for a kiss. Gabe doesn’t respond at first, but Jesse knows his weak spots. He sucks a bit on his bottom lip, gives little presses to the corners of his mouth and the line of his top lip just under his moustache. Gabe finally opens up for him, lets Jesse kiss him the way he wants to.

Finally, finally Gabe’s fingers slip into him, and Jesse breathes  _ just like that _ against Gabe’s lips before sealing his moan between their mouths. Gabe fingers him slowly, as slowly as that first night they were together. Jesse doesn’t mind, he’s preoccupied with how Gabe feels underneath his hands.

Gabe slides down just a bit, there’s the crinkle of a condom wrapper, and soon Jesse is working himself down over Gabe. They’ve fucked with Jesse on top before, but not like this. Not when Jesse’s barely able to do much other than grind down because Gabe is holding him so close, tightly but careful of his ribs. Not when Jesse’s cock doesn’t even need a hand on it because it’s rubbing over scars and hair and defined muscle and it’s almost too much stimulation as it is. Not when they’re pressed so close together Jesse isn’t sure where he ends and Gabe begins.

The orgasms are almost secondary to everything else. Jesse knows Gabe comes from how his fingers tighten to the point of pain on Jesse’s thighs, before relaxing and trying to rub away the sting. Jesse comes as soon as he reaches for himself, his own hand too much stimulation for how he’s been rubbing up against Gabe’s chest. Gabe takes Jesse’s hand afterwards and threads his fingers through, heedless of the semen coating everything. 

They don’t move, foreheads resting against each other, breathing the same air. Once he starts to feel cold from the come that’s gone sticky and then liquid again on his chest, Jesse pulls up on his knees, feels Gabe slip out of him. Gabe practically picks Jesse up with his wide hands spread around his waist, settling him down into bed beside him. He disappears, returning to wipe Jesse down with gentle hands.

It takes a while to arrange themselves in bed so that Jesse’s comfortable. Eventually he ends up just sprawled out on Gabe’s chest, a heavy hand on his back holding him down. 

Jesse feels like it’s just seconds later that he opens bleary eyes to find Gabe trying to maneuver himself out from under Jesse. “Don’ go,” he slurs, half-asleep with fingers digging in. “Don’ leave me.”

He can feel Gabe stop breathing for long enough to be worrisome, Jesse’s head still pressed to his chest. He sighs, and carefully pulls Jesse’s hands away. He slides pillows under Jesse’s head to replace his chest, and Jesse listens sleepily to the familiar sounds of Gabe packing his things up.

The door opens, and Jesse flips over painfully to see Gabe halfway out the door. “Gabe,” he says, trying not to sound as hurt as he feels at not getting the usual goodbye kiss. 

Gabe stops, standing there in his suit with suitcase in hand with his back a long hard line facing away before finally turning back. There’s something in his expression that Jesse can’t read, something sad and fond and perhaps a little angry. He still walks over, though, still leans down. Jesse tries to keep his sour morning mouth closed against the minty freshness of Gabe’s, but now that Gabe’s here he apparently needs to kiss Jesse so deeply it’s hard to breathe. 

It’s a long kiss, a familiar kiss, a kiss that feels like it’s starting something or ending something or both at once, and Jesse still feels it against his lips long after Gabe’s shut the door behind him. 

-x-x-x-x-x-

_ < Jesse, I feel that it’s time we end our business relationship. I wish you well in all that you do. _

He’s been staring at the message off and on for the past six hours, but it doesn’t change. He called in sick to work, something rare enough that Ana almost sent Fareeha over to check on him but he managed to fend her off. He ignores his calls and texts all day, and only considers moving from the couch when there’s a pounding on his door. When he ignores that as well, there’s a rattling of the lock. He knew he never should have given Genji that key.

“Did...did someone die?” Genji asks tentatively, once he takes in Jesse’s face. He just silently holds his phone out. Genji reads it, sighs, and hands the phone back. Climbing onto Jesse’s coffee table, he reaches up to pop the batteries out of the smoke detector before plopping down onto the couch next to Jesse. Pulling a cigarette case and a lighter out of his pocket, he lights a joint and takes a drag before handing it to Jesse.

“I don’t want to be high,” Jesse says sullenly, although he takes a hit and passes it back.

“No, but I certainly want to be in order to deal with you right now.” Genji coughs out smoke as Jesse hits him in the stomach. “Ass. Jesse...you, you had to know this was coming, right? Something like this, at least.”

Jesse sighs, lays his head on the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling. “It had been going so well, though. I mean, yeah, a lil’ awkward that last time because I was a mess from that one asshole dog I told you about, but the sex was still...fuck. After all of that I just don’t get…” He trails off, not sure how to articulate his confusion. He takes another hit, already regretting what he’s going to have to do to get the smell out.

“I told you not to develop feelings for him.”

“I don’t think you did, in so many words,” Jesse says, just to be ornery.

“Well, then I meant to.” Genji drops the roach into an empty beer bottle, and turns to curl up facing Jesse. “It might have been his problem. Maybe he thought that he was getting too close to you. You’re not supposed to fall for the whore.”

“ ‘M not a whore. And don’t say that, it’s rude.”

“But he thought so,” Genji says gently. “Maybe if you nipped this in the bud early on, but you let it go on for a year. Or,” he says, a bit more cheerfully. “Maybe his business isn’t taking him to the area any more, so he’s just not going to be around. A politer way of ending it than just never contacting you again.”

Jesse’s silent as Genji keeps blathering on. “Or maybe he’s retiring, isn’t going to be around for that reason. Maybe his business will take him to a different city, where he’ll find another escort -”

The idea of Gabe seeing someone else makes the gorge rise in Jesse’s throat. Even though the smoothness of how Gabe picked him up that first time indicated it wasn’t his first rodeo with an escort, the idea of him seeing someone like he saw Jesse...fuck. To take it even further, who’s to say he  _ wasn’t _ seeing other escorts while he was seeing Jesse? He knew that Gabe’s primary base was DC but he went all up and down the east coast. 

Maybe there was a Jesse in every city.

“Or maybe -” Genji starts, until he focuses bloodshot eyes and sees Jesse’s expression. “Oh hell, come here.” He wraps Jesse in a hug, though Jesse doesn’t move to make it any easier. “You know I ramble when I’m high, I’m sorry. Fuck.” He holds Jesse for a long moment, until he stiffens. “Wait, I have an idea.”

He gets up, and Jesse hears his door close. A few minutes later, he’s back. “Look who I have!” Genji says in a singsong voice. He’s holding an obese, fuzzy orange cat with a look of utter disdain on his face. “Captain Babyface!” 

Captain Babyface is owned by Jesse’s elderly next door neighbor Nanette; he catsits for her whenever she visits her daughter in Florida. Despite how the Captain always looks like he would rather be anywhere else, he is in fact fluffy as hell and willing to do anything for cuddles. Genji deposits him on Jesse’s lap, and Jesse reluctantly starts petting as the cat rubs his furry face against Jesse’s chin. Despite himself, the purring is soothing.

“Thanks,” Jesse finally says grudgingly. 

Genji leans against the back of the couch, pressing a kiss to the top of Jesse’s head before grabbing his coat. “I have to go get dinner with my brother, but I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Don’t wallow. Also Nanette says you can drop the Captain off tomorrow.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“That you had a broken heart and needed some kitty therapy.”

“Um.”

“Be warned, she might try and feed you her shortbread again. Anyways. Bye!”

The apartment is empty and silent again but for the purring cat. Jesse scratches behind his ears, before looking at his phone one last time and turning it off. He turns it on again less than a minute later to text Ana. He’ll take one more day off, then he’ll get back to work. 

Jesse’s never been good at compartmentalizing, but he is good at working himself until he drops. If you’re too tired to think, you’re too tired to get overwhelmed by emotions. He tells himself that this is a perfectly reasonable way of doing things, as he pets the cat and opens a beer.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It’s trite to say that time heals all wounds, but eventually the stress of dealing with everyday life will dampen down any long term pain. 

The irregular schedule that Jesse and Gabe kept helps things, at least at first. A month passes and even though Jesse makes sure to be busy on Friday nights, even though he changes his driving patterns to avoid the Harbor Hotel, there’s a pinch in his chest when he gets a text that he’s not expecting. 

The immediate sadness fades, but there’s a sense of being off-balance that never quite does. Jesse doesn’t go on dates, even though Genji and Fareeha and even Ana offer to set him up with someone. Although Genji’s the only one to know the details, it’s obvious to everyone Jesse spends any significant amount of time with that something happened. Sombra offers to put whoever hurt him on every airline’s no-fly list forever, and though it’s tempting he turns her down.

He gets licensed to train therapy dogs, and he can’t keep his mind from straying to Gabe every time he gets another veteran in, looking for someone furry to make their lives a bit better. 

Months pass, and everything is just fine.

Until it isn’t.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“Ana! You got the girls ready?” Jesse yells as he lets himself into her house. She’s going to some conference in Chicago, so he’s taking her two Salukis for the week. His apartment isn’t built for two big dogs, but they’ll be coming to work with him and they’re spoiled brats that are used to sleeping on Ana’s bed so he’ll have some furry bedmates for a while.

“In the kitchen!” she calls back.

Jesse shoves the dogs away from where they’re trying to stick their noses in his crotch, and gets two steps into the kitchen before stopping dead in his tracks.

There, sitting at the kitchen table that Jesse’s had a hundred dinners at, is Gabe.

“Gabriel, this is Jesse McCree, my employee I’ve told you about all those times. McCree, this is my old friend Gabriel, from back in my military days.” She gets up, bustling around. “Sit, have a cookie, I’ll load the girls’ stuff into your truck.” Ana is gone in a moment, leaving Jesse and Gabe to stare at each other.

Jesse looks him over as he awkwardly sits down. He looks good, casual in dark pants and a half-zipped up hoodie. He’s staring at Jesse like he’s trying to figure something out, and Jesse has no idea what’s going through his head.

“So you’re friends with Ana. That’s uh. Nice.”

“‘Nice’, Jesse. That’s what you’re going with.”

He rolls his eyes. “What do you expect me to say?”

“How about giving me one good reason for not telling one of my closest friends about her employee’s little side job?” Gabe is keeping the volume down, but the anger is coming through loud and clear.

Jesse sighs, rubs his forehead. “There’s no side job.”

“Really. So what’s the past year been then, hmm?”

“The past year was a beautiful man picking me up in a bar after I had a bad blind date, and then finding out in the morning that he thought I was a prostitute!” Jesse is less successful at the volume issue.

Gabe’s face, thunderous with anger, shades into confusion. “What?”

“Fuck, Gabe. I was just in that bar, okay? I didn’t know that you thought I was anything other than a lonely guy looking for a good time until I woke up to a pile of money.” Jesse sighs, looks down at the table. “I still have all of it, if you want it back. Didn’t really need it, couldn’t bring myself to spend it. Well, other than on some nicer clothes.” Jesse gestures to his current flannel, jeans and boots. “This is my usual wardrobe.”

“You...you. Fuck. What?” Despite the question, Jesse knows it’s rhetorical. He looks up to see Gabe staring into space, eyes moving back and forth as he reevaluates things.

“But at the charity ball, with your client…”

“Genji? He’s my best friend. I just dragged him along so I’d have someone to talk to.”

“He kissed you.”

“Genji will kiss anything with a pulse. And some things without, come to think of it. There was an incident with a cardboard cutout, once.”

Gabe looks less angry, more lost. “That last time, though. With whoever it was that beat you up.”

“Beat me...no, Gabe. No. That was a goddamn  _ dog _ . I’m a dog trainer at the rescue, and these idiots let their overmuscled pet grow up with zero obedience training. Trust me, sheer canine idiocy has hurt me more than any person ever has.”

Gabe isn’t a man of many words, but Jesse’s never seen him unable to find them before. He’s still scowling somewhat and opening his mouth to finally say something when Ana returns. 

“They’re all packed in but I’d get out there soon if I were you, Aida is sniffing at your coffee cup and you know what will happen if she gets into it.” 

Jesse stands and looks at Gabe, unsure of what to say with Ana there. “I’ll see you around, Gabe.” Gabe nods, stiffly, and Jesse walks out of the kitchen.

Ana walks him to his car, carrying a last bag of dog food. “Just to let you know, if you ever meet again I would not call him that.”

“Hmm?”

“Gabriel. He hates the nickname Gabe, only lets a mutual friend of ours and no one else use it.”

“Hmm,” Jesse says again, this time with a note of amusement in his voice. “Interesting. Anyways, anythin’ else before we get on the road?”

As Jesse drives home, dogs barking in the backseat, he can’t help a small smile from spreading over his face.

-x-x-x-x-x-

A few weeks later, Jesse and Genji knock on Fareeha’s door, bottles of wine in hand. Angela opens the door, looking harried. She takes one look at them and snorts. “Wine, wine, always with the wine. Why can’t anyone take mercy on me and just bring vodka?”

Jesse presses a kiss to her cheek on the way in. “Because you’d dive into the bottle and not surface until Fareeha’s near retirement.” 

She huffs but takes the bottles. “They’re all in the back.” 

Fareeha had finally made detective, and Ana decided to celebrate the way a mother with one daughter who isn’t going to have a fancy wedding can - by inviting just about everyone Jesse knew to a party. Jesse and Genji separate and make their ways through the crowd, greeting friends as they go.

Jesse finds Fareeha, who has hidden herself away behind the grill and looked about ready to join Angela in that bottle of vodka. She’s in her highest heeled boots, so he has to lean up to kiss her on the cheek. “How you holdin’ up, darlin’?” 

She gives him a glare, before sighing. “I know mother means well, but I didn’t want all of...this. It’s just a promotion.”

“Yeah, but imagine what she’ll pull when you make sergeant. Or even better, when you finally pop the question to Angie.”

Fareeha looks terrified for a moment before yanking him even further away from the crowd. “Who told you? Did Sombra put another keylogger on my phone?”

“No, it was just a guess, and now Sombra owes me twenty bucks,” he says with a laugh that turns into an  _ oof _ as she elbows him none too gently in the ribs. “Nah, it’s obvious if anyone knows the two of you. You’re smitten.” Just like any other time talking about relationships nowadays, he can’t help from sounding the slightest bit melancholy. 

She shoots him a knowing look as she tests a burger with a finger and flips it over. “You know you’re going to tell me what’s up with you, one of these days.”

“Maybe. Eventually.” If Ana has known Gabe for as long as it seems, there’s a better than decent chance that Fareeha knows him too, and that’s not a conversation Jesse wants to have with her.

He grabs a burger - “Jesse, it’s not done. Jesse! Just because it’s not mooing doesn’t mean it’s ready!” - and makes his way back inside. He finds Sombra and waits expectantly with extended arm until she rolls her eyes and slaps a twenty into his hand.

“She thought you keylogged her phone, by the way.”

“As well she should. If I don’t keep you people on your toes, you’d get lazy.” They stand in a tucked-away corner and snark as they eat, making up stories about the various police friends of Fareeha’s that they don’t know wandering around.

Finally, Jesse gets bored and tired of the crowd, so he slips out the back door. Fareeha has a little garden at the side of the house that she doesn’t like people to know she has, but it’s a beautiful little oasis. Jesse knows there’s a stone bench there that would be perfect to hide away on and have a smoke...if someone wasn’t already there.

He pauses, unsure of whether to bother whoever is there or not, right up until a voice in the darkness says, “Stop lurking or I’ll tell Fareeha to arrest you.”

Of course.

Jesse ambles over, sits down next to Gabe. “Don’t worry, she’s done it before.”

Gabe blows an uneven stream of smoke up to the sky, laughing somewhere deep in his chest as he does so. “Let me guess, she’s the cop friend you would talk about.”

“Guilty as charged.” Jesse plucks the cigarette from Gabe’s lax fingers, takes a drag. It’s that same rich, flavorful tobacco as before. He thinks a minute. “I’m going to say that Ana’s the friend you get these from?”

A grunt of assent as Gabe takes the it back. 

“That hypocrite. She’s been yellin’ at me to quit smokin’ for years, got me to give up cigars a while back. I’ll have to make sure to hold this over her.”

They sit and smoke in silence for a few minutes, until Jesse finally gathers up his courage to break it. “You in town for business?”

“Nah, just the party, really. She’s my goddaughter,” Gabe says in explanation.

“Of course she is,” Jesse says with a sigh, wondering why the world seems so small, sometimes. 

“I’m also looking for a place.”

Jesse looks over at Gabe. He’s staring out into the garden, lit here and there by small lights. “Finally put in my papers, decided to retire.”

Huh. Jesse’s opening his mouth before he quite knows he’s going to. “Oh. Is that why -” He cuts himself off before he can say any more.

Gabe just stubs the butt out and leans back on his hands. “No, that came after. I broke it off because I realized I cared too much. Jack yelled at me, told me I couldn’t have feelings for an escort.”

Jesse takes in a shaky breath. “What if there never was an escort in the first place.”

The chirping of the nighttime insects is suddenly so very, very loud. “Well then, that would be a different situation, wouldn’t it. One I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around for awhile now.”

That’s...less than helpful. Jesse decides to go for broke, because it’s dark and they’re alone in a wild garden and right now he feels like he could ask anything. “So there were feelings?”

Gabe looks over at Jesse, for what feels like the first time that night. “You can’t think I act like that with just anyone. That I would - trust just anyone like that.”

“No, Gabe, I don’t know. You had no problem with me bein’ an escort that first time, for all I knew you were seein’ someone different in every city on the eastern seaboard the whole time.”

“God, no. You were the only one, for a long time. I…” Gabe pulls his hat off, scratches his fingers through unruly curls. “My job doesn’t allow for much - personal connection, I suppose you’d say. All my friends are military too, and I’m too old to figure out how to make new ones. So sometimes, when I was in a strange city and the nights were long, I’d find someone. Just hookups, never saw anyone more than once. Got old enough that it got harder to find someone willing for just a night, so it was just easier to pay sometimes.” He laughs to himself, a bit bitterly. “And then there was you.”

“And then there was me.” Jesse feels like Gabe deserves to know, too. “You were the first guy I’d been with in a decade. First person other than my ex in years and years.” He shakes his head at himself. “Genji told me I was an idiot, that there was no way this would end other than in tears. I just. Didn’t want to give you up. Sorry for all the lying, for the record.”

“Sorry for thinking you were a hooker.”

They glance at each other and simultaneously roll their eyes. “We’re a pair of idiots,” Gabe says, with no small amount of self-deprecation in his tone. 

Jesse smiles and turns so he’s crosslegged on the bench, facing Gabe. He sticks his hand out. “Hey there. I’m Jesse McCree, dog trainer and definitely not a hooker.”

Gabe grasps his hand, and something in Jesse’s stomach lurches to feel his skin again. “My name is Gabriel Reyes, I’m commander of a black ops military unit although I’m about to retire, and I sometimes am bad at reading social situations.”

Neither of them let go. 

“It’s a little early in our relationship, but what would you say to coming home with me?” Jesse says quietly. 

“I mean, I do have a hotel room -" Gabe starts, and gives one of his rare full grins when Jesse shoves his hand away with a huff.

They get up and start to make they way back to the house. 

“You want to find Fareeha, say goodbye?” Jesse asks.

“I’d be surprised if she hasn’t left herself already. You know what she’s like.”

Gabe drapes a heavy arm over Jesse’s shoulders as they walk down the sidewalk to his truck, and for the first time in months Jesse feels like he’s back on solid ground.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact Gabe moves into a condo, they find a new place a year later together and make the down payment with the escort!cash  
> Jesse gives Gabe one of the therapy dogs that he insists he doesn't need but then he gets Attached  
> Ana eventually finds out about everything and laughs herself sick
> 
> come yell at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/thereweregiants)


End file.
